Food Journals | Ginkgo Fine Dining

Food Journals

My dear friends, this is where you will find my personal collection of journals, culinary reflections, recipes, and travel experiences.

Rethinking Waste In Your Kitchen: Unlocking Flavor, Savings, and Sustainability

Honoring every ingredient by cooking mindfully, rethinking food waste, and staying accountable to the impact of my work. I’m listening to a Science Friday episode right now called “Where Does Plastic and Other Trash Go After We Throw It Away?” A conversation between journalist Alexander Clapp and host Flora Lichtman. It is scratching at questions I have had for years: What actually happens to our recycling? What is truly worth recycling anymore? Clapp recently released his b

Sustainable Cooking

Dec 3, 2025

Kanzuri, The Snow - Fermented Chili Paste of Myoko

The process of snow-fermenting is both traditional and purposeful. This story is about Kanzuri: a little jar of chili pepper paste. It's spi

Travel

Jan 19, 2025

How to Eat Well While Traveling Portugal

In the last few days of a month in Portugal, I'm reflecting on what it means to eat well, and the best ways to do it while traveling.

Travel

Jun 30, 2024

24-Hour Venison Shoulder Recipe: Fire, Smoke, and Marrow Magic.

On making new friends, open-fire cooking and fresh venison meat. It was mid-November, and I had hired Paige to come out to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. We were headed out to cook with some of my favorite clients, hunters on their private land who hunt elk, deer, grouse, mushrooms, and more. Naturally this made both of us excited: I grew up bow hunting deer and shooting pheasants with my family in the Midwest, so cooking for a group like felt close to home, personal an

Dec 22, 2025

Gluten-Free Chocolate Torte + Fresh berries

This is one of my new favorites, one that I've made countless times this summer - in the oven or over the fire. It is fantastic even if you undercook (melty chocolate brownie feel) or "over cook" - crispy brownie mouthfeel. Gluten-Free Chocolate Torte + Fresh berries Ingredients: 6 ounces/170 grams roasted (see Tip) hulled almonds 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar or coconut sugar 8 ounces/227 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped 1 cup/227 grams salted butter, cubed 1 tablesp

Oct 24, 2025